How I fell in love with the OpenBSD operating system

I do love open source software. Oh boy, I really do love open source software. It’s extendable, auditable, and customizable. What’s not to love?

I’m astonished by the idea that tens, hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of enthusiastic, passionate developers collaborate on an idea. Together, they make the world a better place, bit by bit.

And this leads me to one of my favorite open source projects: the 22-year-old OpenBSD operating system.

The origins of my love affair with OpenBSD

In 1993, when I turned six, we’ve got our first computer; a Laser 286/2X. It came blasting in with two processors, a 45meg HDD and a few megabytes of RAM (4MB if I recall it correctly, but the details are a bit vague). It featured MS-DOS, WordPerfect 5.1 and a bunch of entertaining games.

But from the first eyesight on, I was more interested in the inner workings of the device. I quickly began to master MS-DOS, QBasic and later on Windows for Workgroups 3.11, which I got from a teacher at my elementary school.

Years later, I exchanged elementary school for high school and quickly befriended Giel, who was a geek like I was. He introduced me to Red Hat, with KDE 1.0.

At the time, I was unfamiliar with the concept of open source, and this got me hooked from the first second. I can’t exactly remember the order, but I switched a lot of distributions from that moment on: SuSE, Mandrake, and eventually ended up with Slackware.

Once the notion of open source fully sank in with me, I began to feel blessed. Blessed to be using the product of thousands of volunteers worldwide. It was a true honor.

From Linux to *BSD

From that moment, I spend nearly all my spare time on IRC channels and Usenet, gathering knowledge, participating in discussions and exchanging ideas.

Somewhere along the way, I read about *BSD. About how it was not another Linux distribution, but a completely different operating system with different goals, ideas, and less organic grown.

I flirted with FreeBSD first, but it didn’t felt right, so I switched back to Linux. But then I stumbled upon OpenBSD. It wasn’t love at the first sight, perhaps. I was accustomed to Linux too much to just make the switch.

However, I did install a dual-boot (OpenBSD/Linux) and began liking it more and more as weeks progressed, right up to the point where I ditched Linux in favor of OpenBSD.

The advantages of OpenBSD

I do consider myself an OpenBSD evangelist. The operating system has some very impressing advantages when compared to other systems:

It’s extremely secure

OpenBSD has an excellent track record when it comes to security. The default install has only had two remote code execution vulnerabilities in almost twenty years. Compare that to Windows, Linux or FreeBSD, which have had many more, and the conclusion is quite clear.

Closed source drivers can’t be audited, thus forming an unknown attack vector. For all we know, these closed-source drivers might be bug-ridden, vulnerable, or in violation of software license agreements.

It’s neat and clean

OpenBSD is clean, without much in the way of bloat. It doesn’t ship with thousand of packages like, for example, Linux does.

This becomes evident during the installation process. The installer asks whether to enable SSH, or whether you intent on running a graphical interface. Since choice and freedom are two of OpenBSD’s elegances, you’re free to install any bloat you wish (try pkg_add gnome).